designSTUDIOmodern

a flurry of productivity

We are nearing the home stretch and a myriad different things are all happening at once. The folding wall has been fabbed, finished, and glazed, and it is a real looker.

 

 

Composed of five equal steel tube-frames, the folding door opens along a top track to allow for an easy transition from the inside of the trailer out onto the stone patio "dock" that defines the space at the top of the lawn.

 

The patio dock mitigates the 32" floor height of the trailer and allows for hardscaping outside the folding wall for seating. A simple limestone block retaining wall carves out a well for the trailer and service "yard" at the top of the lawn, as well as offer a nice view of the city skyline.

 

With the passed Health Department Inspections, and the imminent arrival of the box on site, trenching for the electrical drop has happened, and we are awaiting the final service hook-ups.

 

Justice approves of all of the things accomplished in the last few weeks, but he seems skeptical of the lack of dog-park time...

getting close

la BOITE is cruising along. The exterior has had the logo masked off and painted. The plumbing is in place and fully functioning. The main equipment has been hooked up and tested. The trailer has been weighed and titled. Site landscaping has started. The folding glass wall has been fabbed and is awaiting paint. Lots has been done and now things are really coming together and we are in the home stretch.

 

The logo has been masked off as well as the lights and other things we need to be shielded from paint.

 

Despite the intermittent rain we got the first coat of paint sprayed. After three coats the masking tape was peeled off to expose the original paint colours underneath. Nice...

 

The sinks, water hook-ups, drain-lines, equipment, and cabinets have gone in, as well as the exposed plywood ceiling.

 

In order to have the trailer titled it had to be weighed and given a VIN. It is all official now. Ahead of us are the health department inspections, the final site landscaping and grading, the installation of the folding glass wall, and some minor interior trim-out. A soft opening is imminent. Fingers crossed.

taped up

logo love

logowork

While things are gelling on the inside of the box, we started masking off the logo in prep for the new coat of paint. Opaque projectors are the signpainter's friend...

 

Nothing beats good ole' antiquated technology.

Forbo

the forbo linoleum makes its appearance:

 

foam and veneer

SprayFoam insulation is in and interior walls are sheathed in plywood. Next up: Real Linoleum.

utility

We've started running the utilities in the box in preparation for the BioBased spray foam insulation.  BioTex will be our installer. After insulation we should have R- 10.5 in the back wall and R-25 in the ceiling. A lighter colour of paint (and the possibility of playing with the ceramic bead paint (pardon the horrendous site...) and the insulation along the back walls and ceiling should really make a big difference in the heat that radiates from the steel walls and ceiling.

We also hung the H20Gs from the floor structure of the box. These two tanks will serve as the grey water holding tanks for the two sinks required at the coffee counter.

We also built out a sink cabinet that will allow for us to run electrical and plumbing up for the espresso machine and coffee grinder, which will be sitting over an undercounter fridge. The cabinet (and a few more that will get built-out after all of the appliances are installed) is made of 3/4" AraucoPly which is made from Plantation grown Radiati Pine. It is nice stuff with similar edge details to nice Baltic Birch plywood.

topped out

lightBOX officially topped out with the final installation of the roof panels today. Now you really can get a sense of the exterior form and interior space and light quality. It lives up to its name.

serendipity

Today we got to see some finished pics of a spec-home we designed last year for a lot in St. Paul, MN. The design is a one-off customization of our courtHOUSE design, taking into account the need for a basement and the structural requirements of the snow loads, as well as some value engineering that happened between permitting and construction. All in all the developers did a phenomenal job of translating the designs with no construction oversight on our end. They also made some great choices for active sustainable systems and green materials.

hinged